On Media

WaPo's Roz Helderman to investigative team

Rosalind Helderman has been promoted to The Washington Post's national political investigations and enterprise team for the 2014 and 2016 election cycles, Post editors announced Thursday.

Helderman joined the Post in 2001 and last year broke the news that former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife accepted thousands of dollars in loans and gifts from a former CEO of a dietary supplement-maker. The McDonnells are now facing corruption charges.

"Roz's work over the past year is well known to Virginians and the wider political world. Through meticulous work and deep sourcing, she unraveled the unusual relationship between McDonnell, his wife and a wealthy businessman," Post editors wrote in a memo to staff. "Her reporting helped lead to a federal indictment of the former governor and his wife, who will face trial this summer."

See the full memo after the jump.

We are very excited to announce that Roz Helderman, fresh from an award-worthy run of reporting on Gov. Bob McDonnell, will move to the political investigations and enterprise team on National. She’ll use her prodigious reporting talents to scrutinize candidates, elected officials and others as we move through the midterm and presidential cycles ahead.

Since joining the Post in 2001 as a reporter in Loudoun County, Roz has distinguished herself as a dogged digger with a keen political eye and special knack for developing sources and breaking major stories. While covering Prince George’s County, Roz helped uncover a developer-funded slush fund used by local politicians and helped show that local police had lied about a botched raid on a mayor’s home. In 2009, she covered the campaign for governor in Virginia and then spent a year-and-a-half in Richmond as a state politics reporter. In 2011, she became a Congressional correspondent and played a major role in coverage of the 2012 presidential election. Those who followed that race and the Virginia Politics blog also know that Roz is quick to the punch online and writes with voice and humor.

Roz's work over the past year is well known to Virginians and the wider political world. Through meticulous work and deep sourcing, she unraveled the unusual relationship between McDonnell, his wife and a wealthy businessman. Her reporting helped lead to a federal indictment of the former governor and his wife, who will face trial this summer.

What's more, Roz is a terrific colleague and we all cherish her collaborative spirit and dry wit.